[mukto-mona] America's political landscape becoming a mega pigsty!

America's political landscape becoming a mega pigsty!

 

A.H. Jaffor Ullah

 

The U.S. presidential election is hardly less than 55 days away but the negative campaign has started in full swing to fill the airwaves.  Many political observers including this scribe, however, had predicted this a long time ago.  The Republican Party is famous for doing dirty politics when the fight for White House goes underway.  For example, in the summer of 1972, Richard M. Nixon's campaign wiretapped George McGovern's campaign headquarters located in the Watergate Complex in Washington.  We all know what happened next.  President Nixon resigned in August 1974 after serving nearly 18 months when it was increasingly becoming clear that he would be impeached by American legislators in the Congress. 

 

President Ford and Reagan did not follow in the footsteps of Richard Nixon.  The presidential elections in 1976, 1980, and 1984 were free from overtly negative campaign.  But in 1988 President George H.W. Bush ran a outright dirty campaign to malign Governor Michael Dukakis by using some of the nastiest TV Ads including one that is infamously known as "Willy Horton" Ad.  That did Governor Dukakis in. 

 

In 2004 the Republicans unleashed the so-called "Swiftboaters" of America, a group of Vietnam veterans who falsely questioned the service record of Senator John Kerry who himself was a Vietnam veteran.  That negative Ad also squished Kerry's chance to win the election in certain battleground states.  Turn up the clock to 2008.  This time around, Senator McCain's campaign has started to run a cavalcade of negative campaign to malign Senator Obama.  The idea is to plant the seed of distrust among voters.

 

The Republicans tried to float such wild ideas about Senator Obama as – he is a closet Muslim.  They pointed out that Obama's middle name is Arabic.  They also said that Obama's preacher is a radical priest who hates the white Americans.  They also tried their best to portray Obama as a non-patriot who should not be trusted.  Senator Obama's wife, Michelle, also came under fire; they called her an unpatriotic American who is also a radical.  However, all these incidences of misportrayals did not work and Americans were quick to figure out that an evil campaign by the Republican Party's tricksters was behind the character assassination of Obama family.

 

The Obama campaign was prepared for the onslaught of negative campaigns from their counterpart.  They decided to tackle the negative Ads by counter Ads.  The Republican plan was to keep Obama busy to counter the allegations.  That way, Obama will not be able to bring his message of "Change" to American electorates.

 

In the first week of September 2008 when Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin, was selected by McCain to be his running mate, the dynamics of election changed a bit and the Republican Party's fundamentalist Christian wing was energized at long last.  All of a sudden, the photogenic VP candidate became talk of the town.  This was followed by a slight bump in the poll in favor of McCain-Palin ticket.  This is not unusual to receive a bump in the opinion poll right after the convention.  This is pretty much a normal thing but the bump in the opinion poll is ephemeral, which vanishes in just few days.

 

On September 9, 2008 a controversy brewed out concerning the phrase "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig" used by Senator Obama in his stump in Lebanon, a small town in Virginia.  In the Republican convention in St. Paul, McCain introduced him as an agent of "Change."  But that was Obama's campaign slogan, which he used quite successfully all through the primaries from January through June 2008.  Obama jokingly said to his followers that a pig remains a pig even after applying lipstick.  In a metaphoric sense McCain is still the same old McCain even after calling himself as an agent of "Change."

 

The McCain campaign was quick to take an affront to Obama's speech by calling it a smear on Governor Palin.  Many political observers have opined in CNN that the point of reference of Obama's statement was not Sarah Palin but John McCain.  It should be pointed out here that in her acceptance speech on September 3, 2008 Ms. Palin had said that the only difference between a "hockey mom" like herself and a pit-bull was "lipstick."  In the aftermath of St. Paul convention Ms. Palin has taken up the role of "pit-bull" to maul Obama in every opportunity she gets in the stumps while standing next to John McCain.  Incidentally, the McCain campaign is not letting her loose for the fear that she being a political neophyte may cause some embarrassment by saying off the wall stuffs.    

 

Anita Dunn, a spokesperson from Obama campaign, said, "This phony lecture on gender sensitivity is the height of cynicism and lays bare the increasingly dishonorable campaign John McCain has chosen to run."

 

In summary, the political landscape in America is becoming a pigsty already.  Thanks to McCain campaign for making the placid stump grounds into danger-laden minefields.  As the campaign progresses, there will be more skirmishes.  Amidst all the cacophony, the Internet is playing a positive role where there is no dearth of political pundits who are leaving their blogs to lambaste the guilty party.  The democratization of media and the cyberspace is helping the voters to know who is behind the dirty campaign.  All I could say is caveat emptor.

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A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, USA

 

       

 

      

 

 

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